The Gauntlet of Resurrection
by scarlet phlame
Summary: After the rise and fall of Godcat, the four heroes are surprised to discover that monsters have stopped respawning, and 'Game Over' now means the end of the line: they can never come back. The only explanation for this is the strange glove that has appeared in their bag. The only question is how it got there, and what it's to do with anything. And who the heck is 'Athos?
1. Chapter 1

Nobody knew how the strange, entirely metallic gauntlet had come to appear in Natz's bag, or, for that matter, what it was doing there. Matt suggested that maybe it was one of those secret dungeon items that just goes in your inventory after you kill a boss. Natz had responded with nothing but the usual 'you're-an-idiot' three dots above her head.

They'd tried putting it on. It offered no defence of any sort, no ranged attack or anything. It was about as useful to them as a oven mitt was to Anna. (They'd told her she could use cooking as her special attack, since she was bloody well awful at cooking.)

But never mind the damn glove. Matt wasn't even sure that it could be used as bait for Slimes or Metal-Eaters. Maybe it was something from that other region, Sinnoh, the one with the Pichu things that Natz sometimes summoned. Maybe it had purpose there.

Lance had suggested it might be of value, and that they keep it. Well, easy for him to say, he wasn't the one carrying the bags. (He always kicked up a fuss, said he already had enough ammo to watch.) Then again, Anna had spoken up, saying that some people (direct glare at Natz on the some) carried many heavy things and they didn't kick up a fuss about it.

They alternated turns carrying the glove, and then, one day, it vanished.

But the real problem was that the person who'd stolen it was currently holding a gun on Matt's head.


	2. Chapter 2

"You f'in idiots," Natz hissed, sitting in place with rope tied around her wrists and ankles. "I told you we should've gotten rid of that glove long ago."

"You can't just 'toss' the glove, it's not that simple," the person-thief-thing (Matt had yet to identify who) replied, finishing up the knots on Matt and grinning. "Well, there we are then! I'll be off!"

She picked up the glove from the ground and took off in the other direction.

"Wait!" Anna shouted. "Can't you just put a timed spell or something? I don't want to stay tied up all day in the woods, it's creepy!"

"I haven't got magic," was all the thief responded.

"But the glove, isn't it magic or something?" Anna asked, confused, frowning. The thief hesitated, the glove still in her grip. They watched nervously as she fingered the metal piece.

"Nope, don't know what you're talking about," the thief said, but she didn't turn to move.

"LET US GO, YOU MORON!" Lance shouted.

"Uhh... yelling is not going to cut those ropes, I'm afraid, although I think there's an app for that. Cutting ropes, I mean," the thief contemplated, frowning. "Debatable. Huh. Well, screw debates, I was over with those in English class."

"What are you doing?" Matt hissed at Anna, doing his best to get her attention and inching towards her.

"I'm trying to figure out what the glove does," Anna hissed back.

"Why do you even care?" Matt asked, eyes wide.

"Because it might be some sort of bomb thing! Do you want to be responsible for a worldwide Game Over, dumbass?" Anna hissed back.

"Oy! You two, can it!" the thief shouted. "I can hear what you're saying, y'know. Blimey, is it ever easy keeping hostages?"

"Hostages..." Natz echoed. "Well, what do you mean by that?"

The thief appeared to cringe, although Matt still couldn't make out her figure well. "Well, I was going to go out to hide the glove and all. 'Though I doubt anyone's gonna find you lot out here. I wanted to ask you a few questions."

Several, simultaneous groans. "Great," Lance muttered.

The group waited in tensed silence for her to return. She did, about fifteen minutes later, when the stars were screaming in the sky against the inky black pool of darkness.

"So, hello," the thief said, smiling and taking a seat next to them. "Before we begin, I'm Nikki."

"Can you skip the pleasantries and get to the bit where we get free and then rip your head off your body?" Matt suggested, making a small shrug as he spoke.

The thief- Nikki- frowned. "Hey, tha's rude."

"Your accent, you're British," Anna pointed out. "So what are you doing all the way over here, anyway?"

Nikki shrugged. "Well, someone tossed my glove through a space-time dimension- look, it's hard to explain. I've been after this glove for a long time. What do you know about it?"

"That it weighs a ton and doesn't do anything?" Lance suggested, furrowing his brows as if to get a better view of the object in Nikki's hand.

"You bloody idiots," Nikki grunted, holding up the glove. "You don't even realise what it does."

"Want to tell us?" Natz piped up.

Nikki frowned. "It brings people back from the dead." she glanced at the glove. "Yep. Kinda cool, huh?"

"So who cares?" Natz rolled her eyes. "There are tons of spells to bring back people from the dead. Plus-"

"If you die, you get a game over, right?" Nikki suggested, before frowning. "Yeah, things are quickly changing around here. Ever since this glove appeared in your land, Slimes and monsters have stopped respawning after you kill them. People are staying dead. That's why I need to get the glove out of here, fast as possible."

"So you're trying to save the world?" Lance asked, rolling his eyes. Yeah, she was sure doing a great job of that, tying them up and leaving them on the floor like logs. He'd punch her, except he was a bit... tied up, at the moment.

Nikki blinked. "No, I'm trying to end it."

Before any of them could ask her what she meant by that statement, she simply turned around and leaned against one of the trees, sinking to the ground and closing her eyes.

"Don't try to escape," she said, with her eyes still closed. "Because, let me tell you something. You won't."

* * *

"Okay, I don't like her. What do you say? We get out of these ropes, then cut her head off her body and hang it on the wall," Lance suggested.

"She's just a kid," Anna pointed out, sighing. "She'll kill herself, guaranteed."

"But what she's saying does tie in," Natz pointed out, frowning. "When was the last time we saw a Slime?"

"Well, easy, that was... well..." Matt frowned. "Wait, you aren't saying you agree with her?!"

Natz shrugged. "I'm just saying, it could be possible she's telling the truth."

"Okay, so with the ending the world thing, what the eff does she mean by that, hmm?" Lance inquired. "She's up to no good. We have to stop her. She probably doesn't even have that many hit points."

Natz shuddered. "That glove. It just... doesn't feel right. The way she was talking, she didn't sound right, either. I think they're from a different world."

Matt locked eyes with Natz. "Is that possible?"

Natz frowned, squirming a little, as if to get in a better position. "Look. It's not as if we can get out of here, anyway. She took my staff."

"Use one of your hand spells," Lance suggested, "idiot."

"No, she's put these glove things on my hands," Natz frowned. "I would've tried to escape ages ago. I mean, did you hear her whole 'gloating talk'? I was going to vomit all over my shoes."

Matt let out a loud groan, flexing his fingers and trying to ease out of the ropes. "We need to get out of here!" he shouted.

"She tied us in sitting positions," Anna frowned. "We can't exactly get up and run, can we?"

"She's smart, but she isn't strong. Maybe we can take her out, trick her or something," Lance suggested. "Then make a run for it."

"Yeah, but what about the glove?" Anna asked.

"You aren't seriously suggesting we get the glove, are you?" Lance moaned, just when 'In The Mood' by Glenn Miller started playing.

"Okay, what the eff?" Matt asked, frowning.

"Five more minutes, and it's sunup," Natz pointed out.

"And then what?" Matt inquired.

"We die," Anna said, frowning. "Well, probably."

"Not if we all die first from the cheesy Glenn Miller music," Nikki groaned, sitting up and reaching into one of her pockets. "Where is that bloody phone?" she reached into her pocket and took out a small black box and tapped something, the music thankfully stopping.

"We're going to stop you," Lance informed her, "twerp."

"Oh, are you, then?" Nikki jumped down from where she was sitting, outstretching her arms, as if to provide herself as a better target. "Then go ahead. Stop me," she voiced brutally. "I hope you can," she sneered.

Matt groaned, shifting from where he was tied, catching the disappointed expression on her face (what the hell?). She frowned, shrugging. "No? Okay, then. Suit yourself."

"We're going to defeat you," Natz shouted, "you betch."

"Really? Well, at least I'm not a fanservice character," Nikki grumbled, rolling her eyes at Natz. "Really, are those real or what?" she raised her eyebrows and walked down to where the group was sitting by the river, watching the waves churn and foam at the lip of the bank. She dipped a finger in, and tapped the water onto her tongue.

'What an idiot', Matt thought, 'that's the Poison River'.

"You're a very noisy thinker," Nikki frowned, and Matt groaned inwardly, realising he had just spoken his thought aloud. Fantastic. "Except... the poison, where does it come from?"

"Excess from the Eaters," Anna told her.

"Don't talk to her!" Matt hissed, through angrily clenched teeth. He had no idea what she was playing at, but he was sure it would end up the same way all her cooking did; in flames.

"There isn't any poison in this river," Nikki mumbled, from where she was crouched by the water. "What are Eaters, exactly?"

"They're these monster spawn things, but they have really low health so they fall into the river and leak all this poison," Anna explained.

"Huh. Funny, because the water in here is fresh," Nikki said, raising an eyebrow.

"I dare you to drink a cup," Lance smirked.

Nikki blinked. "Okay."

She reached into her pocket (seriously, how big was that thing) and took out a small mug and canister, dipping it into the river and chugging down the whole thing in a few quick swallows.

"Eugh, not used to the cramps," Nikki mumbled, pocketing the mug again. "What?"

"How could you possibly fit that in your pocket?" Matt asked incredulously.

"Bigger on the inside, transdimensional. Basic sci-fi show science," Nikki responded, beaming and skipping off. "Wait, hang on, I'd better untie you lot." she turned around, making quick work of the ropes holding Matt's wrists together. He smiled at her, then she smiled back.

Then he turned and punched her directly in the face.

"Ow," Nikki recoiled, holding her face and shouting indignantly. "That hurt!" she shouted. "Still, suppose I deserved it..."

"You f'in creep!" Matt shouted. "Perv!"

"Come on, I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and shit out a smarter statement than that," Nikki muttered.

"Get away from him, you creeper!" Lance shouted.

Nikki raised an eyebrow. "Hey, kid, if you wanna be a smart-arse, you have to be smart first. Otherwise, you're just a arse. It's like my friend says."

"Well, your friend's stupid," Matt hissed.

Nikki looked slightly surprised, "oh, so you've met her."

Natz snorted, then looked embarrassed and pretended she'd just sneezed.

"Look," Nikki said, sighing. "I don't know what's going on here. Go ahead, kill me. Won't get much information out of a corpse, will you?"

Matt growled. "Where have you put my sword? Where is it?" he shouted.

Nikki winced. "Blimey, 's that all you can do, shout? I knew NPCs were annoying, but-"

"We aren't NPCs!" Lance shouted, "you idiot!"

"Just because you can't see past the end of your own nose..." Nikki grunted. "Okay. I offer you a choice. Come with me. Help me destroy the glove."

"And if we refuse?" Matt asked.

"Then I'll probably run along, get myself killed, and then your entire world will die, never knowing that they won't come back," Nikki said, simply.

"Melodramatic creep..." Matt mumbled. "How do we know we can trust you?"

Nikki grinned. "That's the best bit." she leaned in. "You don't."


	3. Chapter 3

Matt paused. Thinking. Then, he shook his head. "Naw, I think I'll just take you out and figure what's going on here myself."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a sec," Nikki said, putting her arms up as if in defence. She slowly backed away, although her expression was simply blank. Strange. "Like I said, killing me won't answer your questions. I'm from the same world this glove is from, and I know how it works and how to destroy it. It's what's causing all of this!"

"I've got explosives, bo-ombs, should be simple," Matt shrugged.

"You can't destroy it, not like that," Nikki argued. "It's too powerful. Don't you think it'd have been gone by now?"

Matt frowned, crossing his arms.

"EXCUSE ME, YOU IDIOT, COME OVER HERE AND UNTIE ME!" Lance shouted.

"Shut up, Lance," both Anna and Natz chorused.

"Are you capable of speaking without screaming?" Nikki mumbled.

"Why would you untie us?" Matt demanded.

Nikki shrugged. "Simple. I'm offering you a choice. Either come with me to find means to destroy the Resurrection Glove, or run back home and summon your army. If you try take me out- good luck, but it won't solve anything."

"Come on, dude, just agree and we can get moving," Anna said, sounding very, very tired. "I'm getting bored."

"Seriously?" Natz mumbled, rolling her eyes and staring at her feet. "And they say I'm the annoying one..."

"SHUT UP!" Lance shouted.

"You know, talking in capital letters does not stress your point," Nikki mused. "Matt? What's your decision, then, eh?"

"Fine," Matt growled. "But keep ahead of us."

"Cool." Nikki said, tossing Matt a throwing knife. "Catch!" He caught it by the handle, glaring at her, and her brow furrowed steadily. "What?"

"You do not throw people a throwing knife," Matt hissed.

Nikki shrugged. "Good to know that all Americans are deluded. And I thought I'd seen it with that screaming Patrick GIF."

Matt frowned, cutting Natz and Anna free, then sawing the rope off of Lance's wrists.

"Where are my weapons?" he demanded.

"Somewhere in the river," Nikki chirped back cheerfully.

"You betch," Lance swore.

Nikki smirked. "Well, I do my best. Although the last time I checked, I could have sworn I was not a female dog. Although, speaking of female dogs, have you looked in the mirror recently?"

Lance growled. "I want my radio back. And my coat," he demanded.

Nikki shrugged. "I want a swimming pool. That doesn't mean I'm going to get one."

Matt grabbed Lance, preventing him from punching Nikki. "Hey, as much as I wanna punch her, I'm using this thing called self-control," he informed the gunslinger.

Lance shrugged Matt off him, sending him a cold glare. "Whatever."

"What are we looking for?" Anna asked, sighing, a hand on her hip. Four sets of eyes stared at her simultaneously.

"The glove can only be destroyed by the same metal it's made of," Nikki mumbled.

"This is why I hate Brits, they always speak in riddles!" Natz cried.

"No, I mean, that's what the prophecy said," Nikki explained.

"Prophecy. Seriously?" Natz deadpanned, brushing a strand of hair away and tucking it behind her ear.

Nikki scratched the back of her neck. Shrugged. Looked back and forth as if that would give her an answer. "I'm guessing it means we need to find something in this region that isn't made out of pixels."

"What-sels?" Anna screwed up her face.

"Never mind," Nikki mumbled, picking the glove up out of her bag and frowning. "I don't want to bring anyone back from the dead."

"Why not?" Anna inquired.

"When it's destroyed, everyone should come back, no worries, no strings attached so nobody'll turn into puppets- oh, you know what I mean," Nikki mumbled. "I'd just prefer not to."

"But-" Anna started, but Nikki cut her off.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to die?" Nikki snapped, whirling on her, face twisted into an ugly glare. "To be there, trapped in the darkness and oblivion, and yet peaceful, and then for someone to _drag_ you back for two minutes of sheer terror, remembering how awfully you died?"

Anna was silent. "I mean, I didn't think about it that-"

"This glove," Nikki seethed, "can not bring people back permanently. People used to use it to interrogate others, even from beyond the grave, where I come from. It only works for two minutes. When it fell through that portal, I jumped through after it. This is my chance to destroy it and I'm not letting you band of pixel-heads screw it up. Got it?" she hissed. "Deaths in my world? You don't come back. Now it's flipped. It's chaos up there right now. Chaos down here. These two worlds are at a perfect imbalance. The scale has tipped."

"Yeah, but who made it your job to fix it?" Lance tested her. "You said you were trying to end the world."

"I said I was saving and ending the world at the same time," Nikki argued. "My world is immortal, yours is now mortal. I'm saving you lot, bringing you back. But that means all the recklessness of my world, all the people who've been jumping off buildings or skydiving and coming back- they're gonna die."


	4. Chapter 4

Still slightly stunned by Nikki's outburst earlier, the group had continued their venture through the forest until Matt had decided to call it a day and set up camp. He had just set a fire when Nikki came out of the bushes (it seemed) and promptly stomped it right out.

"Hey!" he cried, scowling at the Brit who was now smashing out the last embers from the fire with the toe of her shoe. "What was that for?" he demanded, face the perfect picture of annoyance.

Nikki huffed. "We've got people chasing after us, me, especially. D'ya really think it's a good idea to set a fire, you dunce?" she picked up a nearby y-shaped stick and thumped him on the head with it, before heading off to check the area like a paranoid. (And she was.)

"Come on, back me up here!" he said desperately, turning to Anna. The girl just shook her head.

"You've gotta admit, it wasn't your highest point," she commented, skipping out into the clearing. "I'm going to go collect herbs and mushrooms."

Matt made a face. "You go do that. I'll just sit here and... keep watch." (Over what, exactly?)

The bushes behind him rustled and he jumped up, an exclamation mark shooting up from his head. "Hey, how come people keep on randomly walking into our camp from the bushes?" he demanded. "And why are there little logs and rocks set up in a circle? It's like someone was expecting us."

Lance ignored him, sitting down on one of the logs and staring at the dead fire.

"Fine, be that way," Matt huffed. "I don't like making a habit of talking to emo people anyway!"

He darted into the forest, looking desperately for something to do (well, anything). He needed time to think, or angst. Angsting was better than sticking around there, well.

The trees seemed to grow thicker and darker the further he went, and when he turned around the path seemed to have closed off. He paled a length and took a tentative step forward.

Shet. Was he lost? He could just look at his map... But then he realized he'd left it back at the camp. Letting out a loud groan, he sat himself down and rubbed his shoulders, looking around for materials to make into a fire.

* * *

"You know, when I walked off to get supplies, I wasn't expecting to find you sleeping next to one of man's most idiotic creations," Nikki huffed. Matt blinked, groaning at the light that assaulted his eyelids.

"Wha?" he started. Nikki yanked his arm and hauled him to his feet, scoffing at his clumsiness. "You know, I get the feeling you're trying to slaughter us all. Can't you be a little more grave about it? You're so cheerful, it hurts," he slurred, his words still jumbled from waking up so suddenly.

"You can't spell slaughter without laughter," Nikki shrugged. "God, is this forest related to Antarctica, it's _freezing_!" she rubbed her arms and huffed.

Then looked up, and froze.

"Avalanche," she whispered.

Matt turned and looked up, sighing. "You idiot, that's not an avalanche, it's a Regice and you've woken it up."

"You woke it up with your fire!" she hissed, slowly backing away. "So you do something!"

"Do what? I left my weapons at camp!" Matt huffed.

"Don't you hide a gun or something in your- never mind," Nikki quickly said.

"Hide in my what?" Matt asked, genuinely curious.

"I had a friend who once... uh, was in a situation where he had no clothes, sort of, and he hid a gun- er, can we focus on the giant ice monster, please?" even so, Matt could see Nikki turning slowly red.

"How can you 'sort of' have no clothes?" he questioned, with a frown, before realizing what she'd just said. "Oh, EEW, that's DISGUSTING! What the heck do you Brits even-"

"Ice monster from Frozen in front of us, shut up and do something! Pull out your weapon! Well, maybe not your weapon, I don't want to see that, but pull out your gun or something!" Nikki snapped.

"You're an OC, don't you have some sort of magic powers?" Matt questioned. Nikki whacked him on the arm.

"I'm trained in combat and can use a gun, yes, but I don't make it a habit of fighting off creepy ice monsters!" she huffed.

"Well, you should, it's really very entertaining," Matt supported. Nikki wildly gestured to the ice monster in front of them.

"Hello? You insane?"

And then the Regice roared and they were running.


End file.
